


Negative ten

by ToxicPineapple



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: (Because my hands have a mind of their own), Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Backround Maki/Kirumi, But In This Fic It's Played Up For Laughs, Denial of Feelings, Developing Relationship, Hope's Peak Academy AU, Internalised Homophobia, Kaito's Internalised Homophobia Is A Serious Problem, Light Angst, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Sickfic, Violating The Bro Code, What's their shipname?, bah, just a smidge, the Bro Code
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:08:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22866874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToxicPineapple/pseuds/ToxicPineapple
Summary: So, the plan, as far as going to Rantaro’s dorm, is pretty much to just stick his head in and ask the dude if he’s okay. Provided he’s like, awake, and answering the door, and all. If not, then Kaito figures he’ll have to track down Kokichi and ask if he can pick the lock. Which, if Kaito offers him enough grape soda or whatever, he will probably agree to do. It seems like a pretty solid plan, and Kaito is feeling reasonably confident about it when he steps in front of Rantaro’s door.Just as he raises his hand to ring the bell, however, the door swings open.“Oh, Momota, good morning,” Rantaro smiles, but Kaito raises his eyebrows. Yeesh.---Kaito's not like, worried, or anything, when Rantaro doesn't show up to breakfast, but hey, he notices. That's what bros do, y'know?
Relationships: Amami Rantaro/Momota Kaito, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 75





	Negative ten

Kaito likes being the first one to the dining hall every morning.

Well, actually, he’s the second one to the dining hall every morning; the first one to the dining hall is Kirumi, typically, because she’s doing her maid duty stuff. It’s honestly really respectable! Kirumi is impressive as  _ hell  _ and Kaito wishes she’d let him help out sometime, if only so that he could see her in action. It used to be that Kirumi could only enter the dining hall when everyone else does, because the doors are unlocked at seven, but then Kokichi broke the locks (for god knows what reason) and the school apparently can’t be bothered to fix them. It’s been months, seriously, what kind of lazy ass management…

At any rate, Kaito gets up early every day to do a couple laps around the school-- nothing wakes him up better than a good run!-- and after that he hits the dining hall. Kirumi’s pretty familiar with his schedule at this point, so usually she has a mug of coffee (dollop of creamer, spoonful of sugar, just the way he takes it) waiting for him by the time he arrives. Actually, he says usually, but as far as he can remember since Kirumi found out about his routine she’s pretty much never failed to have the coffee there.

(Again, remarkable. Kaito wishes he could be as good at  _ anything  _ as Kirumi is at being a maid. He thinks he’s a pretty swell astronaut, of course, but it’s hard to step it to Kirumi, ya know?)

It’s just nice being up early. Not even because Kaito doesn’t like being around people. Sure, the silence is great. There’s something really swell about the tranquility of a moment before a bunch of folks come barging in. Kaito doesn’t really care about that. He flourishes in loud environments. The cacophony of the dining hall at lunch might be an  _ unconventional  _ sympathy but it’s his kind of music. And his friends are the instruments, which makes it even better. What he likes most about being up early is how damn refreshing it is.

Like, taking a hot shower before the sun comes up and then stepping out of the bathtub, dripping water, as the sun rises through the crack above the curtains over the bathroom window? Nice, man. Not to mention that first step outside, when the crisp, fresh smelling air hits your clean face… good vibes all around. That’s the best step to take a run in. Kaito feels overwhelmingly  _ cool  _ during those moments, and not in like, a temperature way, or even the  _ cool dude  _ kind of way. It’s more of a vibe thing and insanely difficult to explain. But yeah, Kaito is one hell of a morning person and Shuichi has called him inhuman for it, but hey. Nobody ever said the Luminary of the Stars was like the rest of the guys he’s on this planet with.

This morning, Kaito only does a lap (because he’s got a stitch in his chest and his asthma is ehh, mostly gone but still he doesn’t want to take any chances) around the school before heading into the dining hall. He’s less sweaty than usual, but his coffee is still waiting for him, so that’s fantastic. He calls out a  _ thanks Toujo!  _ and grins when she hums in reply, probably too busy making breakfast to care. He can smell fish grilling from the kitchen, which, stellar. He knows one of the upperclassmen is vegetarian, Mahiru, if Kaito recalls correctly-- great person, super confrontational but you gotta be sometimes-- but Kirumi will without a doubt have something for her to eat. She’s reliable like that.

Before Kaito grabs his coffee, he shrugs off his jacket and drops into his seat, leaning back. He’s not all that short of breath after one lap, but might as well rest for a while. Gather his senses and all. It’s a nice day outside. It’s not super sunny or anything, in fact it’ll probably be overcast later, but it’s good weather regardless. Crisp enough to make a run satisfying, and all. If it’s not raining tonight, training with Shuichi and Maki is going to be excellent. Kaito’d better keep a handle on the whole asthma thing if he wants to enjoy it thoroughly.

Kaito takes a long sip of his coffee. Since he gets here so early, he knows the order people arrive in. Tenko is usually right after him, which he actually doesn’t mind all that much. There’s plenty to say to each other with the rest of the class around, but alone like this, with nothing but the sound of Kirumi bustling in the kitchen, things are calm enough that Kaito can just give Tenko a nod, which she’ll return. Sometimes, if she’s feeling charitable, she’ll even give him a half smile. It’s a pretty neat system, between the two of them.

After that Kaede will show up, followed by Kiibo and Gonta, and Angie usually bounces in at some point as well. Tsumugi rises early, either that or doesn’t sleep at all, so she comes relatively early as well. (Students from the upper classes show up too, but Kaito doesn’t know them well enough, nor does he know all of their names, for that matter, to pay any real attention.)

There’s no real fixed order, of course. Korekiyo comes earlier or later depending on the day and Kokichi doesn’t always even come to breakfast. Maki usually shows up near the end of the meal, and Miu’s unpredictable, either first thing in the morning or last to arrive. She always arrives with a bang, though. For all her flaws, Kaito’s gotta admire her style. As for Ryoma, Himiko, and Shuichi? Well, they’re pretty much never at breakfast,  _ much to Kaito’s chagrin.  _ He doesn’t wanna touch the Himiko sitch with a ten foot pole, lest Tenko like, slaughter him or something (though it doesn’t seem like Himiko would be very okay with that, frankly) but Ryoma and Shuichi, who Kaito calls his sidekicks, he feels kinda responsible for?

He’s kinda fighting a losing battle there, though. Shuichi stays up late browsing memes and Ryoma doesn’t like being in such a loud room as the dining hall so early in the morning. Fair enough, except, Kaito feels a bit unfairly irked by it. It’s totally their call, Kaito would just rather they try, y’know?

Oh, there’s also Rantaro, but Rantaro travels so much that even when he’s around, he doesn’t make breakfast sometimes because he’s so tired. That’s fair. Plus, Kaito and Rantaro kind of have, like, an understanding? Not in a weird way, just, Kaito doesn’t get on Rantaro’s ass if Rantaro doesn’t get on his. (Rantaro maybe maybe not might have walked in on Kaito trying not to cry in a storage closet one too many times. Whatever. He doesn’t carry around his student handbook anymore. And crying in front of other people is super unmanly.)

Anyway, Rantaro got back yesterday morning, so he should probably be at breakfast today. He seems like the kind of guy to wander in five minutes before the bell and chuckle about it. Kaito gets those vibes from him. He’s down to the dredges in his coffee by the time Miu nearly breaks the door open, bragging about some invention she stayed up all night finishing. Maki wordlessly slips in behind her, meeting Kaito’s eyes and mouthing  _ kill me  _ in his direction.

(Kaito nearly spits coffee and sugar on himself when he laughs. Maki is hilarious when she’s not threatening to kill people.)

The morning bell rings before Rantaro shows up. Ryoma and Shuichi and Himiko aren’t here either, but that’s pretty typical of them, so Kaito is more worried about Rantaro. Kaede’s been looking at him for a while, maybe concerned by his incessant watching of the door, which-- well, Kaede’s always been pretty observant, so, fair enough. As the sound of people shuffling to their feet fills the room, Kaito begins to stack their dishes in the middle of the table, and Maki grabs them, wordlessly slipping off to hand them to Kirumi at the kitchen door.

Kaede gives Kaito another measured look. “Why don’t you go check on him? I’ll wake up Hoshi and Saihara today.”

“Huh?” Kaito meets her gaze, raising his eyebrows. Honestly, he’s surprised she picked up on the fact that he was worried about Rantaro specifically. Maybe he could’ve been stressing about Shuichi. This kind of thing is pretty normal for  _ Shuichi,  _ though. And Kaede has that annoying sixth sense thing which has meant her also having the annoying habit of walking in on him crying from time to time. (Definitely more intentional than Rantaro, though, on her part. Curse Kaede and her empathy. Can’t a dude just like, have a breakdown in the privacy of his own janitor’s closet?)

“Amami seemed kind of under-the-weather when I saw him at dinner yesterday,” Kaede urges, nudging Kaito with her shoulder as she steps around the table. Her smile isn’t teasing, more like understanding. Kaede’s good for this kind of thing. Won’t make fun of him. Kaito’s kinda embarrassed he was so transparent, but like, not  _ that  _ embarrassed. Any kind of vulnerability, no matter how well-disguised, is pretty much transparency as far as Kaede is concerned. Kaito is not immune. “Maybe just pop in and say hi, y’know?”

After Kaede leaves, and Maki returns to the table, her eyebrows raised at him, Kaito really doesn’t have anything to do other than heed her words. She’d probably be happy to wake Shuichi and Ryoma any day of the week, of course, if Kaito asked; but the fact that she’s doing it of her own volition now means it’d be a dick move if he just went to class. Doesn’t want to make her go out of her way for nothing, and all. He starts out of the dining hall, wondering how he could subtly ask Maki to just go to class without being weird about it, but when they reach the door Maki stops walking regardless.

“I’m going to wait for my girlfriend,” she says distantly, gesturing at the kitchen. Maki and Kirumi being like, a  _ thing,  _ is kind of a recent development, but Kaito is happy to be the first person that Maki told. Best friend rights and all. Anyway, Kaito flashes her a grin and a thumbs up.

“Go get it, Harumaki!” He encourages, and Maki’s red eyes roll, but he catches a glimpse of a smile before he turns around and heads down the hallway to exit the building.

Once again, Kaito is hit with the pleasant chilliness of early autumn. For sure the best season in the year. Kaito also likes spring, but since pollen triggers his asthma, it’s, uh, not his favourite. The colours are nice, though. Real cash money of the seasons to make everything all pretty and shit.

So, the plan, as far as going to Rantaro’s dorm, is pretty much to just stick his head in and ask the dude if he’s okay. Provided he’s like, awake, and answering the door, and all. If not, then Kaito figures he’ll have to track down Kokichi and ask if he can pick the lock. Which, if Kaito offers him enough grape soda or whatever, he will probably agree to do. It seems like a pretty solid plan, and Kaito is feeling reasonably confident about it when he steps in front of Rantaro’s door.

Just as he raises his hand to ring the bell, however, the door swings open.

“Oh, Momota, good morning,” Rantaro smiles, but Kaito raises his eyebrows. Yeesh.

Actually, Rantaro cleans up pretty nicely, even when he’s sick. (Not that Kaito is thinking  _ gay thoughts  _ right now. That’d be totally inappropriate.) If not for the pallid nature of his skin-- which is tan usually, not that Kaito notices-- and the way that he’s holding himself up on the door frame, he’d probably pass as completely well. Kaito chews the inside of his cheek. Would it be a violation of the bro code to say something? Like, Kaito doesn’t want Rantaro going to class sick because it’ll be bad for him and also it’ll make everyone else sick too, but at the same time, this could come back to bite him in the ass later. For real. Kaito is, after all, something of an expert on pretending to be healthy when he absolutely is not.

“Is something the matter?” Rantaro asks, more quietly. His brow furrows, and Kaito notices the light sheen of sweat across his forehead. Huh. Without asking, Kaito extends a hand and feels Rantaro’s forehead. Maybe because he’s sick, because Kaito can’t think of any other reasons for this, Rantaro doesn’t lean away from the touch. He just makes a confused face with Kaito thinks, very purposefully, is un-cute. Like, the opposite of cute. Cuteness levels negative ten or something.

“You’re burning up, man,” Kaito mutters, pulling his hand away and determinedly ignoring the flood of gay thoughts that unfairly barrage him when Rantaro tilts his head forward. His smile is wry.

“Haha, I thought I was just imagining that,” says Rantaro, which is frankly a very stupid thing to say, because he seems really dizzy. “I don’t have a, uh,” he snaps his fingers, as though trying to find the word. “What, a, uhm--”

“Thermometer?” Kaito suggests, raising his eyebrows again.

  
“Yeah,” Rantaro agrees, nodding. When he meets Kaito’s eyes, he’s smiling again, a really (UN. CUTE.) dopey smile on his face. This guy… Kaito pinches the bridge of his nose. Bro code be damned. “Sorry, my thoughts are kind of scattered right now.”

“No kidding,” Kaito mutters. “Okay, come on,” he sighs, reaching out and gently taking Rantaro by the arm. It’s a testament to how exhausted he is that Rantaro just turns around and starts walking back towards his bed. Kaito kicks the door closed behind them and surveys the space as he sits Rantaro down.

Blankets are messy, strewn everywhere. Rantaro’s got a fever so he was probably really cold last night. Kaito wonders vaguely if he kicks out in his sleep or something and that’s why they’re all on the floor. Rather than putting them on the bed again, Kaito nudges them to the side with his foot and steps over to the closet, pulling it open. Pretty vacant, to be honest. There’s a suitcase on the bottom though, and a rewardingly thick stack of extra blankets on the top shelf. Kaito takes them down and loads them up in the crook of his arm, turning back around to where Rantaro’s sitting.

He’s got his head tilting to the side, and his eyes are darting between Kaito in the door. After a moment, he seems to decide to speak.

“I should-- probably be going to class, right?”

“Fuck off, man,” Kaito snorts. “You’re hot as hell.”

“Thanks,” Rantaro grins.

Kaito considers dropping the blankets and running into the bathroom to shove his face into the sink and pour freezing cold water down on himself, but ultimately decides it wouldn’t be worth the embarrassment. “That’s not what I meant,” he sighs. “I mean you’ve got a fever, man. You should be in bed. Resting.”

“I don’t think it’s any worse than your typical sick spell,” Rantaro muses. “I mean, the diseases in Spain can’t be all that different from the ones here, can they? I  _ was _ in Spain… I think? I don’t think it was Mexico City, but they definitely spoke Spanish. Actually, maybe it was Italian? Latin languages kind of sound the same to me…” Rantaro seems to be rambling at this point. Kaito sighs again and decides that he doesn’t necessarily need to interrupt, walking over to dump the blankets by Rantaro’s side on the bed.

Honestly, if he really wanted to do this caretaking stuff, he’d probably have snatched Mikan(an upperclassman)’s title by now. It’s not like he can just turn around and walk out of the room, though. And there’s something endearing (in like, a platonic way) about the way Rantaro looks at him, his brow furrowing in confusion. Maybe he’s stopped speculating about the place he went to on a trip literally two days ago. Kaito brushes Rantaro’s hair out of his face  _ because of the fever. _

“Momota,” Rantaro begins. “I really should go to class. I’ve missed a few weeks already because of my trip, and--”

“You’re gonna get everyone sick, man.” Kaito shakes his head. “Besides, you seem a bit too disoriented to be safe around Ouma right now, y’dig?”

Rantaro’s responding smile is soft. “Ouma isn’t so bad. I bet he’d go easy on me.” Kaito is not trying to hear this Kokichi kindness. What is this, summer camp? Kaito heads back to the closet and finds a couple towels. Rantaro’s probably not sick enough to warrant like a full on cold rag, but it might make him feel better.

When Kaito returns to the actual bedroom, Rantaro’s shrugged off the jacket to his school uniform. He doesn’t wear a tie already, which is like, solidarity, man, and the top few buttons of his shirt are perpetually undone. It’s easier to, uh, not focus on, when there are other people in the room. Kaito spends a few moments trying to figure out what coherent thought is. “You’re gonna wanna lie down, man,” he remarks. Rantaro doesn’t. He appears to be distracted with the sleeve of his shirt. “Amami--”

“Sorry,” Rantaro says quietly. Kaito raises his eyebrows. He wasn’t really, like, fishing for apologies? In fact he thinks this one is kind of unwarranted, but-- ahhhhh, shit. Rantaro rests his chin on one of his hands, blinking hard. It seems like there are tears caught in his eyelashes. (Like, Kaito’s good at pep talks and all, but oh man… oh man… aside from the hug and hope it all goes away approach, Kaito’s really got nothing good to do with crying people. Especially not Rantaro, who he knows nothing about aside from the fact that they’ve both got some problems with like, toxic masculinity, as Kaede called it.) “I’m-- kind of disappointed that I’ll be missing class today, that’s all.”

Kaito tries to wrack his brain for a single fun thing that Rantaro would be missing out on today. He comes up empty. “Uh… is there something happening today that I can’t bring to mind?” he asks, frowning. “Because I’m sure there can be a rain check, or something like tha--”

“No,” Rantaro chuckles, shaking his head. When he straightens up again, it seems like the danger of tears has passed, but Kaito is still standing there like a dumbass with a wet hand towel in his hands because he’s not sure… what’s happening. “I just feel kind of irresponsible, y’know? Like I’m not really a part of the class. Since I’m not really around, uhm, ever.” Rantaro is smiling? But it’s not a real smile. Kaito considers himself to be something of an expect on fake smiles, because… well, because he… “I have another trip planned for the end of the week but I was hoping to get some time with you guys before then.”

“Dude,” Kaito barks out a laugh, because it’s the only real way that he knows how to respond. Rantaro looks up at him in alarm. “Do you really think we judge whether or not you’re a part of the class based on how often you are or aren’t present? You got some important shit to travel for, man, we get it,” he reaches out to knock his fist against Rantaro’s shoulder. But, like, gently, since he’s sick and all. Not for any other reasons though. “You’re still our pal-- I mean, people are sad when you’re not around, y’know? You shouldn’t take for granted the impact that your presence has on other people. Leads to some serious self esteem issues.”

(It’s not like Kaito would know, or anything.)

“You’re sick, though,” Kaito reminds, crossing his arms and getting his jacket wet with the hand towel. Eh. He’ll get a new one. “So you should be resting. You’re not doing us any favours by getting sicker. Or by getting us sick. You know how  _ annoying  _ it would be if Ouma got sick? He’d milk that shit for  _ weeks.” _

At that, Rantaro laughs, running a hand through his hair. He stops after a moment, giving Kaito a tired smile. (Which is probably the least cute of all the smiles today, quite frankly, not that Rantaro’s been cute at all this whole time because that would be  _ gay  _ and Kaito’s nnnot-- entirely-- or at all-- the only thing that Kaito is at this moment is in denial.) “When you put it that way, it feels like a pretty obvious oversight.” He remarks faintly.

“Sometimes the most obvious answers are only obvious to the Luminary of the Stars. Don’t beat yourself up over it.” Kaito replies. He decides to take the second laugh that Rantaro gives as a sign that Rantaro’s coming out of his funk, and not that he said anything funny just now, because  _ of course he didn’t he’s just stating facts.  _ Rantaro’s got a nice smile, though. And the laughter brings just a little bit of colour back into his face, though he still looks like he feels absolutely rotten.

Kaito has a quick and sharp moment of fear when Rantaro starts unbuttoning his shirt, but it turns out that he’s wearing an undershirt, so, eh. He manages to swallow down the fear before anything stupid comes out.

For extra security, he turns around to go back to the bathroom. “I’m gonna get you a new towel, I think this one is pretty shitty by now--”

  
Before he can go entirely, though, Rantaro’s fingers curl around his wrist, and Kaito has to dodge a whole new onslaught of gay thoughts as he turns back around, raising his eyebrows. His face feels hot, but hey, maybe he’s just projecting from his wrist. Rantaro’s got quite the temperature, y’know? “Momota,” Rantaro starts. He pauses for a moment, and then smiles again. “Thanks for checking up on me. And for, uhm,” he gestures vaguely with his free hand. “Y’know. This.”

“Sure, man,” Kaito replies, fully willing to brush over the actual emotional aspects of the conversation that they just had. “You’re my bro, y’know?”

“Yeah,” Rantaro says quietly. And Kaito brushes it off to spare himself the embarrassment, but to be completely and fully honest… that didn’t sound much like the real, true, yeah of a one hundred percent genuine bro.

This time, though, Kaito doesn’t feel all that inclined to be freaked out about it. And maybe he ends up not leaving Rantaro’s room after putting the towel down, snagging a chair near his bed instead and beginning to flip through one of the books Rantaro’s got lying around, but hey. That’s not really anyone’s business.

(Besides, Rantaro is… really fuckin’ cute when he’s sleeping.)

**Author's Note:**

> you can't run forever kaito
> 
> ahem
> 
> i'm also gonna do a kaito sickfic because like, equality and whatever. hey fun fact kaito and rantaro are already the only characters who i've ever done sickfics of isn't that neat. i wrote a momoharu one where kaito is being dumb and an amaguji one where rantaro is being dumb
> 
> my boieyszz
> 
> shoutout to my partner for telling me to get off my ass and write this fic, unlike SOMEONE i know who said i should write crackfic :( tilds isn't gonna read this bc she doesn't know dr yet but still. i'm being bullied y'feel
> 
> i had this finished last night actually but three fics in one evening feels kinda overkill, y'know?
> 
> anyway if you don't like amamota sign off now because this is the third of many more fics to come


End file.
